The objective of this application is to obtain support to fund travel expenses and conference fees (including registration, room and board) for the invited speakers and discussion leaders, as well as the Chair and Vice-Chair, at the Gordon Research Conference on Fertilization and the Activation of Development, to be held at the Holderness School, Plymouth, New Hampshire, July 30 - August 4, 1995. This conference has been held every two years since 1974. It is the only Gordon Research Conference concerned with the interaction of the male and the female gametes in the vital process of fertilization and activation of the fertilized egg to begin the process of embryo formation. It provides a venue for the interaction of biochemists, cell biologists, molecular biologists, physiologists and biophysicists working in the field. This conference has been singularly successful in fostering collaborations between workers in the middle and on the periphery of the field, between researchers of similar and widely disparate experience and seniority, and between research laboratories in this country and Europe, Japan, Australia and Latin America. These collaborations have borne many fruitful results. There will be nine sessions in the conference, following the Gordon Research Conference format: 1) Evolution and function of chemosensory transduction in gametes, 2) Gamete recognition molecules, 3) Early events of egg activation, 4) Sperm-egg plasma membrane interactions, 5) Insights into fertilization and activation of development from studies in other experimental systems: receptor signaling, receptor aggregation and exocytosis, 6) Fertilization in plants, 7) Coordination of early and late events of egg activation, 8) Plenary lecture, and 9) Current topics and contributed papers. This year's plenary lecture will be given by Dr. Ronald M. Green, from the Center for Bioethics, Dartmouth College.